Even before graduating from the University of Bath in 2024, Arnau Ayerbe secured a sought-after AI engineer role at JP Morgan, yet he found himself feeling limited and uninspired.
“I quickly realised that the people to my right and left represented my future in 20 years, and that wasn’t what I wanted,” recalls Ayerbe, who is based in London.
His close friend from high school in Madrid, Pablo Jiménez de Parga Ramos, experienced a similar feeling after landing a corporate job following his graduation from University College London.
In 2023, they partnered with Ayerbe’s university friend, Bergen Merey, in London to launch Throxy, a company that creates AI agents for sales teams.
The trio, all now 24, have raised nearly £5 million in two rounds of investor funding and boast annual sales of almost £1.2 million.
They are part of a growing trend of 20-somethings venturing into entrepreneurship. Data from Enterprise Nation indicates that 62% of Gen Z in the UK—those born between 1997 and 2012—aspire to start their own businesses.
This ambition is reflected in the British Business Bank’s Start Up Loans programme, which has seen the number of loans awarded to Gen Z founders double in the past five years.
For the young entrepreneurs at Throxy, the journey has been both rewarding and demanding.
Ramos describes Throxy’s culture as a “9-9-6” ethos, with employees working from 9 am to 9 pm, six days a week, rather than a traditional nine-to-five schedule.
Ayerbe adds, “If I had known the sheer amount of effort and work required to bring the company to this point, I might have never started it.”
Throxy’s founders believe their familiarity with AI provides a significant advantage over older generations.
Garcia explains that building an AI-driven business felt natural to him.
“I was working with early models of Chat GPT on research projects before their public release, and it felt like magic.
“It felt like a transformational force that would fundamentally change how we, as humans, work for the better,” he says.
Ayerbe and his co-founders may one day lead a company valued at over $1 billion (£740 million), a milestone known as achieving unicorn status.
Research by investment network Antler suggests that increasingly younger entrepreneurs are founding the most successful AI start-ups.
The firm analyzed 3,512 founders of companies that went on to exceed $1 billion in value.
The study revealed that the average age of an entrepreneur founding an AI unicorn dropped from 40 in 2020 to 29 in 2024.
However, young business owners often face the challenge of being underestimated by older clients and partners.
Rosie Skuse experienced this firsthand. As a new business owner in her early 20s, she was frequently mistaken for her boss’s assistant and had to correct the assumption.
“Some people wouldn’t even shake my hand. It was really tough, and I used to struggle with it a lot. It’s frustrating when people don’t assume it’s your company. But when I started speaking, people could see that I knew what I was talking about,” recalls Skuse, who is based in London.
“Then they’d say, ‘wow, you must be so proud—but you’re so young.’ That shock factor was almost like a secret weapon because I would catch people off guard, and they would end up actually listening.”
Now 29, Skuse is the founder and CEO of Molto Music Group, a music and entertainment agency whose clients include prestigious venues such as The Dorchester, The Savoy, Soho House, and Raffles.
Molto Music Group draws from a roster of over 300 musicians to create custom house bands for these venues, often designing the stage and set as well. The agency also collaborates with luxury brands like Hermes and Patek Philippe on private events.
Despite launching in 2019 and facing contract cancellations due to the Covid pandemic, the business is now thriving. Molto Music Group reached its first million in revenue in 2023 and turned over £1.6 million in 2025. The company employs seven full-time staff.
“I have no formal business education. It’s all been trial by fire and learning as we go,” says Skuse.
“I’ve had to work a lot on my tone, delivery—and my handshake—but being young and fostering a young company can be a breath of fresh air compared with our competitors. It’s more memorable.”
Seasoned business founders offer advice to their younger counterparts.
Lee Broders, 53, started his first business in IT at 26 after serving 10 years in the military. He has since become a serial entrepreneur and currently manages seven ventures, ranging from business mentoring to photography.
According to Broders, reaching the first million in revenue is not the ultimate goal—it’s about scaling a business for long-term sustainability.
“Rapid growth can often mask fragile foundations. Growing something quickly doesn’t always equate to sustainability or robustness,” notes Broders, who is based in Shropshire.
“It’s great if you’re turning over a million pounds, but if it’s costing £990,000, and you’re actually making £10,000 a year, that’s very different.”
Sarah Skelton is the co-founder and managing director of Flourish, a recruitment firm for the sales industry.
She started her first business in 2024 at the age of 46 and is concerned that founders in their 20s may lack valuable leadership and management skills that are often best learned in a traditional work environment.
“It’s great that in this day and age you can set up a business quite quickly. But I think you have to have lived experiences to be really strong at that leadership piece, which is the quite critical bit here,” says Skelton, who is based in London.
She is the co-founder and managing director of Flourish, a recruitment firm for the sales industry.
“Also, when you’re growing a business, leaning on people in a network is really important. But of course, if you’re super young and you’re going straight into this, where’s your network?
She adds: “My network is 25 years of placing candidates, selling to different businesses, working across different countries. It’s really tough when you’re that young. How do you know who to lean on and where to find those people?”
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